Chapter 6: Out Of The Cellar

Fleeing the Red Bastion after finding the cursed mirror as quested by Cross Robin of the Black Crows, the party finds themselves in the surrounding desert, their mounts and supplies being actively devoured by the same gnoll war band that the party witnessed leave the fortress.

By moonlight, the party trudges away from the way band, traveling by night to avoid the heat of the day and attempting to staying ahead of the generally nocturnal gnoll. After some hours Deevo’s raven familiar can spot no sign of the war band, and the party, assessing their options, makes their way west towards the coast, where Jeevan reports of a seacoast town named Donnybrook.

The party happens about a path through foothills which is guarded by a Galeb Duhr– an earth elemental in the form of an animated boulder. The creature warns the party against attempting to use a path to summit the mountain that it guards, which it claims is a “confluence of planar alignment” to the elemental plane of Earth. However, Stryperson is able to talk the elemental into letting him (and he alone) explore the summit. The party waits while Stryperson summits the mountain over a three hour period, from where he can see the surrounding lands and a stream heading towards the coast. While exploring the mountain, he is subjected to a magical affect which temporarily makes his skin denser and slightly more difficult to damage,

Returning to the party, the group continues westward over several days, as the land becomes less barren and the flow of the stream increases. The party skirts a squad of soldiers in green cloaks that seem to be patrolling the area, spotted by Deevo’s Raven.

The party arrives at Donnybrook after a few days relatively uneventful travel, having reached green hills overlooking the Sea of Stars. On arrival to the town, it is apparent that the village is hosting a carnival- one which is recognized by Book and Deevo as the “Traveling Wilbury’s Circus of Oddities and Delights”. The busy affair is awash in cacophonous music, generated by a steam-powered calliope operated by a gnome named Klonipin. Quickly, the group is spotted by Tom Wilbury a halfling proprietor of the fair, who seems excited to see Book and Deevo (who were arrested for witchcraft and obstruction of justice at the traveling fair, where they were both employed, just months ago by the Malagra Expeditionary Ranger Force).

Deevo is initially angry at Tom, believing him to be the cause for his arrest. The straw-haired Tom insists otherwise and asks to speak to the Deevo and Book privately to explain and ask for a favor. Deevo reluctantly agrees to this discussion while the Black Crow escort, Meadowlark, heads to the docks area to “rehydrate” after the long walk.

Upon entering his office-wagon, Tom, joined by his mellow brother Bob, insist that the Wilbury’s had as much to lose from the raid as Deevo and Book, and that the raid was organized by the “One Who Is Many” zealots in Malagra cracking down on witchcraft in the area. Tom describes how the traveling circus fell on difficult times after the MERF raid, and ran out of money at Donnybrook, when a silent partner (via the partners liason, Zucker) invested in the circus allowing them to hire new acts. At first, the investors were a boon, allowing the circus to hire exciting new acts. The location at a busy “smuggling and entertainment” port of Donnybrook meant that the circus would not have to spend as much time on the road and could entertain travelers in situ.

However, after some weeks, Tom noticed that the elder Wilbury brother, Roy, started to become more distant, isolating himself in his wagon, voluntarily dealing only with Zucker. The other Wilbury brothers suggested leaving Donnybrook, which Roy angrily refused.

Tom offers a reward in the form of a magical sword if the party can help determine what leverage Zucker and his silent investor have on Roy. Deevo tentatively agrees, if only to get to the bottom of his grudge against the brothers.

After the discussion, the party splits up to explore the fair, with Stryperson exploring the “House of Oddities” while others split between the beer garden and the big top, where Zucker is acting as an MC over the main event which includes animal training, the acrobatic monks (two sets of twins from Xin Fai), a sharpshooter archer, and a girl with trained rats that can perform amazing feats.

When members of the party are attacked by a horde of rats in the beer garden outhouse, the Myconid Pheremones alert the split party who converge and disperse the rat horde. In the chaos, the party realizes that both Jeevan and the mirror are missing.

The party confronts Roy in his trailer, with Zangar disguised as Zucker intimidating him. However, the real Zangar shows up at Roys trailer along with several of the other “newer acts” and attack the party, while Roy Wilbury turns into a form of a ratlike humanoid. The party fends off attacks from trained animals, the “strong bearded woman” the acrobats, and an unseen sniper landing arrow attacks. Eventually the party confronts the rat trainer who is leaving the circus, and she seems genuinly surprised when her pet rat turns into a giant rat and joins the attack.

Eventually the accosters are beaten back, and the party trails Zucker to sewers under Donnybrook, where after some exploration they find the stolen cursed mirror (which has been opened but is unattended, a large pool of blood being all that is left of the would-be thief).

Further into the sewers, the party encounters the “silent investor” talking from the shadows to Zucker, who eventually appears from the shadows as a rat king, a hellish creature composed of five huge rats fused at the tail, while the captured Jeevan himself appears to be turning into a giant rat. The party manages to defeat the Rat King, while Zucker and the circus blockhead (both were-rats) escape the battle. The party stays in the tunnel to aggregate the large amounts of coins and odd treasures that were collected by the Rat King’s vermin subjects.

Jeevan returns to his (one armed) human self after the slaying of the rat king. Upon leaving the tunnels to the early morning light, the party finds Meadowlark leaving a dockside pub, inebriated.

The next day, Deevo, having been bitten by Zucker, begins to experience signs of lycanthropy and counts the days to the next full moon. Tom presents the party with their reward, a Moon Touched Sword, which, while offering no advantage to hit an enemy, can shed light at will and damage enemies that require magic to hit.

However, with most of his current staff exposed as enemies loyal to Zucker, and with the leadership of Donnybrook no longer friendly, he intimates that the Wilburys will be leaving the village to search for a cure for Roy.